On this episode, we discuss the seventy-first Best Picture Winner: “SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.”

"Shakespeare in Love" follows a fictional relationship between William Shakespeare and a young woman who poses as a man in order to star in one of the writer's plays, "Romeo & Juliet."  Several characters in the film are based on historical figures, and many of the characters, lines, and plot devices allude to Shakespeare's plays.  Suffering from writer's block, Shakespeare is in need of a new muse, which he soon finds in the form of a beautiful female aristocrat, Viola De Lesseps. But her daring determination to act in his play puts their already forbidden relationship on even more dangerous ground.  Directed by John Madden, the film stars Joseph Fiennes as Will Shakespeare, Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola De Lesseps, Geoffrey Rush as Philip Henslowe, Tom Wilkinson as Hugh Fennyman, Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth, Imelda Staunton as The Nurse, Colin Firth as Lord Wessex, Jim Carter as Ralph Bashford and Ben Affleck as Ned Alleyn.

Here on The Envelope, we discuss & review every Best Picture Winner in the Academy Awards History. 

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